Ryan Anderson and Stan Van Gundy, together again?
Yes, please.
The Detroit Pistons have positioned themselves to be big spenders this summer. They delayed an extension for Andre Drummond, used the stretch provision on Josh Smith in 2014-15 and have a number of non-guaranteed and expiring contracts that will allow them to create max-contract space.
Just don’t expect them to chase superstars with said space. They will, no doubt, but they have other priorities, more realistic aspirations, in mind—such as reuniting Anderson and Van Gundy and, perhaps, poaching Donatas Motiejunas from the Houston Rockets.
Zach Lowe dropped this latest tidbit on an episode of The Lowe Post (major hat tip to ProBasketballTalk):
They want a four in free agency this summer, the Pistons, really badly. They’re going to look at Stan’s old friend Ryan Anderson. I’ve heard they’re hot on Motiejunas from Houston who’s always hurt. So, who knows how hot they actually are?
Both players make some semblance of sense. The Pistons cannot shoot, and Anderson can. He is a rich man’s Ersan Ilyasova. He’ll come with a higher price tag, and I’m pretty sure the universe will implode if he and Ilyasova are on the same team, but the latter’s contract is non-guaranteed, so the Pistons could decide to move on from him.
Motiejunas is a restricted free agent and the Rockets can match any offer he receives. But he’s frequently injured, and the Rockets have enough frontcourt firepower in Clint Capela, Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones, the latter two of him will enter free agency themselves. Motiejunas can play either the 4 or 5 and provides both floor spacing and, when engaged, rim protection. His addition would make Aron Baynes more than expendable.
Adding either of these two, let alone both, without pillaging through the roster would be weird. Marcus Morris is best suited at power forward yet spends most of his time at the 3. Having two of Ilyasova, Motiejunas and Anderson would make it next to impossible for him to gain any consistent burn at the 4.
Still, the summer is a ways off, and the Pistons have been an aggressive bunch under Van Gundy. If Anderson and Motiejunas are two of their primary targets, expect a few roster-tweaking moves to precede those pursuits.
